cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar's Office Endorses Arresting, MM Patients





Drug Czar's Office Endorses Arresting, MM Patients
Posted by FoM on April 23, 1999 at 07:44:57 PT
Source: NORML
Washington, D.C. Patients using marijuana medicinally should still face arrest and prosecution despite a federally commissioned report concluding the drug has medical value, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) stated in a recent interview. 
The statements drew the ire of NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. "Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey and his minions are not only misguided in their naked opposition to medical marijuana; unfortunately, they are also malevolent."   ONDCP Deputy Director Donald Vereen called physicians who recommend marijuana to their patients "irresponsible" and endorsed arresting patients who use the drug, in the April 16, 1999, issue of Psychiatric News, the journal of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).   "It doesn't matter what the excuse [for using marijuana is,] ... you are going to get arrested just as fast," Vereen said. "Individuals and individual doctors don't make medical policy, and that's what this is."   Last month, a report by the Institute of Medicine concluded that,"Short term marijuana use appears to be suitable in treating conditions like chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, or the wasting syndrome caused by AIDS ... for patients who do not respond well to other medications."   For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation   (202) 483-8751. 
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